Ankerberg: I can remember as a student, when my science and biology teachers
argued that the DNA structure of man and apes is similar and therefore this is
supposed to be proof of common ancestry. What about similarity of bone
structure and DNA? Dr. Kent Hovind argues that this
is really scientific evidence that clearly shows man did not evolve from the
apes. Listen:

Hovind:
The typical textbooks will say that the evidence that man and apes are related
is that they have similar behavior and, of course, I would vouch for that. Some
of the students I saw in school certainly behaved like apes. But they’ll also
say they have similar DNA structure and that’s supposed to be proof of a common
ancestor. Then they find these bones in the ground and they say, “See, this proves this animal was the ancestor of us today.”

I’d like to point out that,
first of all, if you find a bone in the ground, all you know is, it died. You
don’t know that it had any children, let alone different children. So it really
is of course ridiculous to say that we know that this is the ancestor of
somebody else because we find these bones in the ground. You can’t prove any of
that. As far as behavior, of course, I think that similar behaviors are made
because animals came from a common designer and we all live in the same world
and you might’ have to eat food and digest it and there may be some behaviors
that are similar because we have a common designer.

And as far as the DNA
structure, textbooks will say that DNA is evidence for evolution. They say it’s evidence from molecular biology. This textbook says,
“Darwin speculated that all forms of life are related. This speculation has
been verified.”

Now, hold on just a minute.
What they’re going to say is, it’s been verified
because of DNA similarities. The human chromosome is incredibly complex. The
DNA, or the chromosome as it’s called, is unbelievably complex. The average
person has about 50 trillion cells in their body and each of those cells,
except for the gametes, contain 46 chromosomes. If you extracted all of the
chromosomes out of your body, you would fit into two tablespoons. And yet if
you tied them together and stretched them out, it would reach from earth to the
moon and back five million times. It is incredibly complex. This DNA code is
more complex than all the computer programs ever written by man combined. All
contained in two tablespoons. If you typed out this incredible code, when you
got done typing, you’d have enough books to fill the Grand Canyon 40 times.
That’s just the instructions required to make one person. Unbelievably
complex. And, of course, the psalmist said, “I will praise thee for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.” And he didn’t even have a microscope. He
didn’t know about DNA but he could still figure out we are incredibly well
designed.

As a baby develops inside the
mother, it adds cells to its body, about 15,000 cells per minute are added for
the entire nine months, each of those containing 46 of these chromosomes with
unbelievably complex instructions. Each cell in the human body is more complex
than the space shuttle and here the baby is building 15,000 of those every
minute. It all comes from this DNA code which they didn’t know about in
Darwin’s day but today the scientists are saying that this DNA is evidence that
we all came from a common ancestor. Truth of the matter is, if you organize the
animals based upon the number of chromosomes, you don’t get anything similar to
what they say happened in evolution. The earliest life form, according to the
chromosome number, would be the penicillin. They only have two chromosomes. And
over billions of years the penicillin turned into a fruit fly with eight. And
then the fruit fly slowly evolved, of course, and got some more chromosomes
someplace and became either a tomato or a house fly. They both have twelve. If
you look at the number of chromosomes, it’s silly to think there is a
similarity. If chromosome number means anything, if this DNA really means
something, then I would point out that the possum, the redwood tree and the
kidney bean all have 22 chromosomes and therefore they are identical
triplets-which of course is ridiculous. They’re not identical triplets at all.

They say that apes and humans
have similar DNA. The truth of the matter is, the
chimpanzee has the same number of chromosomes as the tobacco plant. They both
have more than humans have. So the similarity would break down right there.

And the most complex creature
in the world, of course, would be the fern. They’ve got 480 chromosomes. So
this idea is ridiculous. But this textbook shows the kids a chart and says,
“Boys and girls, we are similar to orangutans. We have 96% similarity. That
proves a common ancestor 15 million

years ago.” Now, wait a minute. Similarity in chromosomes proves
a common designer, not a common ancestor.” It actually doesn’t prove either
one. It could be an indication of either one and the fact is,
we’ve only analyzed about one percent of human DNA. Only one percent has even been
studied. So if you’re pointing out a 99% similarity between chimps and humans
and you’ve only studied one percent of the data, I think it’s a little premature
to say that this is proof of anything. If there are similarities, I would say
this is just as much argument for a common designer. But the students are never
presented with this. They’re only told this is evidence for evolution. It looks
to me like somebody’s got an agenda they’re trying to push off on the kids.
There are no missing links between apes and humans. There are a few
similarities. We both have two eyes and two ears because we both have the same
designer.